


Thus Honour Calls

by Small_Hobbit



Category: Henry V - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen, Poetry, Sonnets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 10:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8009734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/pseuds/Small_Hobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sonnet based on the performance of Henry V I saw at Gloucester Cathedral, in which WWI soldiers perform the play.  This is an Italian sonnet, so the first eight lines serve as the question - in this case the action as the men of Shakespeare's Henry V viewed it; the last six lines, the answer, are the realities for the WWI soldiers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thus Honour Calls

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ's Fan Flashworks "Honour" Challenge

Thus honour calls the English on to fight  
And follow on behind their lawful king  
The dauphin’s challenge delivered late that spring  
Is answered by the warriors’ proofs of might  
And battle’s doubts redoubled by the night  
Are chased away as birds rise on the wing  
So vanquished foe are brought to reckoning  
And victors prove their honour and their right  
But now that honour tarnishéd and worn  
Bears testament to trenches and gunfire  
To limbless men, the blinded and worse fears  
To bloody men with battledresses torn  
To shouted orders, whistles, mud and mire  
For honour’s dead and all that’s left is tears


End file.
